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That Music List #254 compiles my personal faves from Eurovisions 2019-2026, including Daði Freyr, Käärijä, Circus Mircus, Joost Klein, Serhat, Voyager, Erika Vikman, Zalagasper, Maro, Baby Lasagna, Tautumeitas, Keiino, Sal Da Vinci, Lion Ceccah, Gåte and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Nine out of ten again – nice work, sir!
I had Armenia through instead of Cyprus, the latter of whom can consider herself highly fortunate to make the final after by far the worst vocal performance of either semi (following similar in front of the juries, I understand).
As to who wins the whole thing? Pass. Moldova and (especially) Australia had the momentum in the betting the last I checked, but whether it’s sufficient in either case to usurp Finland is moot.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I had Portugal to qualify instead of Estonia, but the end result is the same – nine out of ten.
The quality of quite a few performances was down on the equivalents in the entrants’ respective national finals – nerves, or technical issues, perhaps? – and I’m clutching my each-way slip with Lithuania stamped on it somewhat more nervously as a result. You could clearly hear Lion trying to shout his way out of trouble towards the end of his piece.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hope you all had as lovely and productive a weekend as you’d wished for.
Me? I sat down and, um, accidentally wrote a review of all of the Eurovision songs.
It’s almost certainly too long, and full of questionable takes, but then that’s my writing generally (I’ll say it before any of you do😜).
It’s almost certainly also the only Eurovision review that namechecks all of John Shuttleworth, Junior Wimbledon, Cardiacs, Arkle, Stewart Lee, Adamski, ParkRun, Bunny vs Monkey and the official motto of Rutland, though. Because you’re worth it and I care.
Feel free to agree with as much or as little of it as you fancy. See also if you can guess which song is my favourite (not entirely clear) and which has annoyed me more than any other in 45 years of watching (not at all unclear)!
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #252 includes music from Raye, Antony Szmierek, Josie, Stevie Wonder, The School, No Peeling, Broken Chanter, Laura Cantrell, And One, Kit, The Male Nurse, Mumble Tide, LFO, Rachel’s, DAF, Chapterhouse, Gnac and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hope you’re all enjoying a sufficiently restful or productive Bank Holiday weekend, depending on what you need.
Snooker tickets for next year were bought quickly and easily enough yesterday, thank goodness. The price seems to creep up year on year, but then I suppose it costs quite a bit to keep Rob Walker in waistcoats and lacquer.
That aside, the other project successfully crossed off has been to start recovering as many of my previous Eurovision pieces as possible from whichever active and dead parts of cyberspace I’d scattered them previously, and stick them all in the one place on my blog. Digital preservation in action? My colleagues at the library will be pleased.
Anyhoo. I’m sure these all enjoy little more than curiosity status given the Contests in question have all passed, but feel free to have a gander if you want reminding of the highs and lows of the previous five years (plus 2017). I’m sure I’ve done more than these, though – will keep looking.
That Eurovision Postmortem – 2017
That Eurovision Postmortem – 2021
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I think I would need more than an apparent entente cordiale between Ginger McCain and one longstanding set of friends before being convinced that the former was more greatly receptive to the idea of female Grand National jockeys (as a whole) in his autumn years.
His passing in late 2011, almost entirely before the rise of Rachael Blackmore had started (that was just her second season operating in Irish jumps races, having ridden just four times in the first), leaves us no wiser, of course.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
For as long as this debate has occasionally raised its head (and we must be talking well over three decades now), I’ve always wondered whether the trainers of the better horses in particular school their horses over a water jump at home, and if not, why not.
It isn’t as if the bigger training centres don’t have the resources (they appear to be able to knock up Aintree-style fences for their National aspirants readily enough), and a horse thought or shown to be good enough to go chasing at Cheltenham or Sandown is going to encounter a water – that can’t be swerved.
The safety of these jumps’ design should, rightly, never not be subject to continuous review, and a more tapered exit from the water – rather than a tray or lip that a horse can catch its hind legs on – is an absolute prerequisite as far as I’m concerned. Ultimately, however, there is a shared responsibility and accountability here – trainers as well as racecourses. I don’t believe it should all rest upon the latter.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Sticking out our bottom set of teeth and going, “Yeah, but it isn’t!” in the style of Ted has become our go-to for disarming the other in an argument. Neither of us can keep a straight face after that.
We’re going to miss the single-minded, scrofulous, opportunistic little bugger. Wherever he’s gone in the afterlife, may there be a riverbank, something smelly to roll in, and of course a briefcase.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #251 includes music from Boards of Canada, The Anchoress, Colour Me Wednesday, Spacemoth, The Fourth Act, Aberdeen, The Itch, Credit to the Nation, Lionrock, Studio Kosmische, Quadrophonia, Pictish Trail, Picasio and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #250 includes music from Adriano Celentano, Grand National, The Four Seasons, Dagmar Zuniga, Tic Tac Toe, Seazoo, Amsterdam, Twisted Teens, Malajube, Golden Starlet, Oracle Sisters, Ebo Taylor, The Golden Dawn and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
In this instance though I do feel a substantive ban is also justifiable and will ensure that young Mr McCain-Mitchell will never make that mistake again.
Although hailing from a family obviously inextricably associated with the Grand National, Toby McCain-Mitchell has had to live curiously in its shadow up until this last weekend.
I was racereading at Hornby Castle on the day he rode his first ever point-to-point winner. There was a certain irony in that achievement being overshadowed utterly 75 minutes later by the National victory of Minella Times, steered home by someone whom his grandfather would have objected to their riding in it at all.
Sam Twiston-Davies’s availability notwithstanding, there must have been the semblance of an argument for putting Toby back up on Beauport in last year’s race, the partnership having pulled out a career-best for the gelding in landing the London National five months prior.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
The stable has a bit of history in the Stayers Hurdle. Lisnagar Oscar won the race at 50-1 off a rating of just 146 (Haiti is currently rated 154 over hurdles 10lbs lower than his rating over fences).
As we’ve seen in the last month Home By The Lee (and recently with Sire Du Berlais) older horses can be really competitive in the stayers division.
I think they really should explore that avenue next season.
Unless the pick of this year’s 3m novice hurdle cohort all improve significantly, that stayers’ division looks absolutely there for the taking next term. I’ve seen in cheerily described as “dire” in the press more than a couple of times in recent weeks,
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
You are quite correct in surmising that the Sarah Records roster was generally favourable to my ears, though not all of them. I was never a great fan of Amelia’s vocals, though I liked the more recent stuff she did as The Catenary Wires. As a Belfast resident sadly many bands still give us a swerve and I tend to reserve visits to Dublin and across the Irish Sea to those must-see acts.
The Sugargliders are one of the Sarah bands that I have explored as they morphed into The Steinbecks (well worth getting to know). They in turn led to the introduction to a number of Aussie Indie bands through exposure to the Popboomerang and Lost & Lonesome labels, including, most notably the wonderful Lucksmiths.
Yep, I don’t think too many Sarah acts toured Ireland back in the day, presumably with the exception of Dublin signing The Harvest Ministers. Also hailing from Dublin, Brian is the Sarah act that never was, depending on whether you believe the legend that frontman Ken Sweeney turned down a phone offer to record for Sarah on the assumption it was a prank call.
I have a few Steinbecks tracks but still prefer the plenty-from-little ingenuity of the Meadows brothers’ Sugargliders incarnation, to the tune of owning all six of their Sarah 7″s, the Marineville-released single which preceded those, and the International Pop 7″ EP to which they also contributed a track.
Plenty of Lucksmiths in this household, too, and my brother and I were in the audience for their last ever English gig (and penultimate UK one) back in July 2009. London Scala the venue, support from Allo, Darlin’ and Daniel Kitson, the last-named their most dedicated and obsessed fan. IIRC Daniel split the sets from the two musical acts with a stand-up set with more poop gags than you might expect from such a cerebral performer.
Tali White of the Lucksmiths is a cousin of Sugargliders/Steinbecks siblings Josh and Joel Meadows, I understand. Small world!
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Your website is ab fab, a true labour of love
You’re very kind, Drone, many thanks! Since reactivating the blog I’ve noticed that it’s requiring a lot more work and effort to secure a lot fewer visits these days; but other, far more gifted, music bloggers that I’m in touch with say the same thing also. They and I share the same pathological urge to write, write, write no matter the audience size, however, so I’m a long way off being sufficiently discouraged to retreat into another hiatus.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hi GC, very long time no speak. Great to see Win make the list. They were so unlucky. Still listen to their album from time to time, on top of the many remixes of You’ve Got The Power.
A pleasure to read you, too, VtC! Trust all is well with you and yours. Life experience tells us not to take absolutely everything we see as gospel; and the charts of the 1980s and 1990s, replete as they were with real or imagined sharp practices, sales rigging and (in poor Win’s case) mistaken cases of regional hyping, are good examples of that.
I can quite believe that the north west of the first near quarter century of my existence would have been viewed with similar suspicion by Gallup chart compilers from time to time. Piccadilly Radio would have carried considerable clout in the 1980s and helped propel certain songs it got right behind to strong regional sales. I can only assume the rest of the nation failed to get similarly behind tracks by the likes of Floy Joy, Fra Lippo Lippi, The Bernhardts, etc., exposing that incongruity.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #249 includes music from Lung Leg, Laetitia Sadier, Marie Davidson, Carla J Easton, Wesley Gonzalez, Monograph, Florence Adooni, Folk Implosion, The Siddeleys, Spratleys, The Last Poets, Marina Zispin, Colleen and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
